ANAHEIM, Calif.

Yes, Texas A&M had bigger, faster athletes. Yes, they come from a better conference. Yes, the Aggies played one of their best games of the season.

But it came down to the more tournament-experienced team making it work at the end of the game. The Aggies scored at least one point on their last 13 possessions of the game, far more efficient then they've been most of the season.

Discipline. If coaches have told you once, they've told you a thousand times.

"Don't leave your feet on the jump shooter."

Happened last year in BYU's loss to Xavier at a key moment, happened this year in the loss to A M. Beau Muelbach, who had scored only two points all day, got a Cougar in the air with a fake at the end of the shot clock, drove inside and dished to Dominique Kirk for the dagger, a wide-open 3-pointer for a six-point lead with 24 seconds left.

"Take good shots."

Here was Jonathan Tavernari, with BYU down four with under two minutes to play, launching an ill-advised 28-foot NBA 3-pointer. Nice confidence, bad choice.

"Block out on rebounds."

The Cougars got beat 37-25 on the boards by the stronger, longer Aggies, including a couple of huge offensive rebounds late.

Here's your bottom line: BYU made up for its terrible start, but A&M was cool and disciplined down the stretch.

BYU was not.

So it's another one-and-done for the Cougars.

You can talk about seedings and matchups all you want -- gee, wasn't it nice for the NCAA to schedule UNLV what amounted to a bye in the first round? -- but the Cougars have no one to blame but themselves and their lack of discipline when it really mattered.

An interesting choice by BYU was to monster (double team) the post to start the game. Aggies coach Mark Turgeon said he watched on film in the three games BYU played against big schools -- Louisville, North Carolina and Michigan State -- it monstered the post, and A&M was ready for it.

All the monster did was leave the Aggies' best shooter, Josh Carter, wide open from beyond the arc on three straight possessions. He hit 2-of-3 and got off to a great start, as did his team, jumping out to an 11-0 advantage. Carter finished with 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting (6-of-10 from the 3-point line). This season, Carter averaged 11.9 points per game, shooting 40 percent from the floor and 36 percent from the 3-point line.

"We got wide-open looks," Turgeon said. "And we practiced it all week. We knew they were going to do it and we were prepared for it and we knocked them down.

"The one thing is, we scouted the heck out of them. ... They average 74. We held them to 62 points. I feel like we knew every one of their sets. I got a million of them, and we might not run them because it's taken me so long to figure this team out. They might not know all our sets."

Let me translate: We feel like we outcoached BYU.

Maybe they did.

But coaches don't play. They don't get come out flat, get caught on screens or miss open shots.

Most of BYU's players are scheduled to return next season. They have to live with the disappointment of another first-round tournament loss all summer.

Let's see what they do with that.

Dave Rose was forceful when talking about how important it was that BYU won the MWC regular-season title again.

Sure, it's a nice accomplishment. Hang your banner. Wear your ring.

But if you're not moving forward, you're standing still.

And right now, with two straight first-round NCAA tournament exits, the Cougars are wearing out their Nikes running in place.

• Daily Herald Sports Editor Darnell Dickson can be reached at 344-2555 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it